Did Riverdale really just kill off THAT character?

If you’ve just finished watching the series finale of Riverdale season 1 then chances are you’re still reeling from the final scene, in which a main character was involved in a devastating turn of events.

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If you’ve not yet watched it, bookmark this page and come back to it later, because you’re going to want to sit down when you see what happens.

BEWARE! SPOILERS ARE COMING!

Ok, are you ready to talk about THAT final scene now? Good.

Is Riverdale’s Fred Andrews really dead?

So, in the final moments of Riverdale series one episode 13, just when we thought things were relatively sorted, Archie Andrews’ (KJ Apa) dad Fred (Luke Perry) was shot during a robbery at Pop’s Diner.

As the curtain fell on series one, Archie lay cradling his bleeding father in his arms. But will Fred Andrews die?

“I am neither confirming or denying that, but I am confirming that we will see Luke Perry in the season two premiere” the show’s creator, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told E! News.

“It wasn’t originally expected, but then when it happened it felt inevitable that Fred, who is of all our characters the one who most believe in Riverdale, the town, the one who loved it the most, who was born there and grew up there, started his business there, chose to raise his son there; the guy who was the least morally compromised of our characters, that he would be the one most affected by the darkness and the criminality that has been bumbling around the fringes of the show” he explained when discussing the decision to put the character in such a perilous situation.

“The second you start thinking about who deserved it the least, it’s sort of like it has to happen.”

But if you think Perry’s return at the start of season 2 sounds like good news, Aguirre-Sacasa also drew parallels with both Batman and Spider-Man’s origin stories, which were pivotal in their journeys but did not end well for their relatives.

“Archie is our hero of the series and what happens to heroes is that something happens in their lives that changes them forever, and it’s sort of like when Bruce Wayne’s parents are shot in front of him in Crime Alley and he vows to become the Batman. Or when Peter Parker learns that his beloved Uncle Ben, who is very similar to Fred, is dead, he vows to become the Spider-Man. And I think for Archie, we were really looking for something like that and looking toward season two, it really does galvanise and change Archie.

“The impulse, the journey is going to be dark, like Batman. It is going to be driven by revenge and violence begetting violence, and payback.”

Of course revenge doesn’t necessarily mean death but, either way, will the tormented musically gifted teenager ever come back from what’s happened to his father?

“Hopefully at some point, it will turn toward the light and being a real hero, being driven by more altruistic reasons and honoring the man that Fred raised. Archie was raised by Fred, he was raised by a good guy, and I think that will ultimately come true, but I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Well, that’s not so bad. Riverdale’s always at its finest when the storylines are dark.

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